If you've ever listened in to a conversation among a bunch of keen Instagram users you'll have noticed that the discussion tends to circle a lot more around likes and follower numbers than the actual images and content that is being posted.

Now a field-test has been launched with users in Canada who won't be able to see like numbers on the photos of accounts they are following during the next several days. You can still see the likes on your own content, though.

At its F8 developer conference Instagram parent company Facebook confirmed that it is considering a roll-out to its entire platform. In the affected accounts a message is displayed to make users aware of the test.

'We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get. During this test, only you will be able to see the total number of likes on your posts.'

Instagram's attempts to keep those kind of activities under control and put the focus back on content can only be a good thing but if the latest test will be expanded to all users will likely depend on the reaction of the users in Canada.

If it has become currency and Facebook takes its use away from users that will leave Facebook the only one capable of spending the currency.Why don't they just clamp down on fake accounts and Like selling. Whay is that so hard. The problem is not that it has become currency but that the currency is devalued by fake notes.The other thing worth noting is the obsession is likely to wear off naturally.

The other thing worth noting is that they will probably retain the feature for business accounts, forcing people to switch to business accounts and leveraging them for revenue. Make no mistake, this is all about FB skimming the cream off the milk. If they cared about your obsession then they'd deal with fake accounts and those who sell Likes. They don't.

Making it visible to the account holder makes this change useless and doesn't tone down the obsession with likes, plus "influencers" will just post screenshots of their like numbers, and the end user still spends time counting likes.

Hmm, I dunno. I’m all for removing public likes counts (who cares?) but it’s kind of useful for me to see which images people like best. It’s educational for me: it doesn’t determine what and how I shoot, but it’s a factor.

The invention of "likes" has skewed reality and true worth online and dumbed down communications to one click. It fosters anonymity. DPR should remove the "like" function from its website or at least modify it to indicate who is "liking" a post.

@huyzer - and what good do it do if you push the dislike button? How shall the person who wrote (or read) the post you disliked know what you mean? It is actually totally meaningless. If you disagree, say so, and explain why. Just a dislike can mean anything, it might even mean that you just were in a bad mood or misunderstood.

@Roland KarlssonIf you're not braindead and stupid, most people can figure out their opinion is unpopular when they have more dislikes than likes. It's not rocket science to figure that out. My goodness!

You seem to be very naïve huyzer. Number of dislikes and likes are often single digit and say nothing statistically. A dislike only say that someone pushed the dislike button, for whatever reason. It might be a mistake and it might be to annoy you. It might be because the one pushing hates you. It might be because he think what you wrote is wrong. It might also be because he has another opinion. It might be that he thinks, even what you write is correct, that you should not say i, because it is not polite. There ise an infinite spectrum of possibilities. And, you can only guess.

If you look at YouTube, you can see that even spectacular performances might have thousands of dislikes. And you might also know that the most common joke is something made up regarding those that disliked. It is actually totally impossible to know what they disliked. The like button is at least some kind of general appreciation. But the dislike? Of a spectacular performance? Totally incomprehensible. Is it not their taste? Do they think the performance is bad? Do they think the singer is ugly or have ugly clothes? Are they annoyed at the technical quality of the video or sound? Are they just negative to everything or just decided right now that it was fun to push the dislike button? Impossible to know.

So - if you do not agree or find some other faults - be brave and say so.

I know that some fora shows who liked and disliked. That is better. Then, at least, the one that is disliked, knows by whom.

@Roland KarlssonFor goodness sake. If a video/opinion has a massive response, then the volume should speak volumes about what people think about your opinion. It's about the proportion, not the number. Crikey, man! Besides that, you will hear from people that do express the whys of their dislike. Like I said, if you're not braindead and stupid, you will understand.

I am neither brain dead nor stupid, and my arguments are valid. But, we do not have dislike buttons here ... so it does not really matter. No need to discuss it really. At least the DPR staff understood the arguments some of us presented, so they removed it. All is fine.

This is a step in the right direction. But if Likes stop being "the currency" of Instagram, then probably the number of comments may become the new currency; and we are right back to where we started. But you gotta start somewhere.

Flickr please take note. See a photo of a sandwich or a portrait of a cat in the explore with 4,500,000 views and 15k of favorites. And on the other hand, authentic works of art with 400 views and 15-20 favorites are seriously damaging my photographic mental health.

this will fail. people post on instagram to gent instant gratification, they care little about content, only likes and followers to brag about. influencers and marketing agencies too only care about that in numbers. no likes no instagra.... now, plz give me some likes xD

My account is subject to this trial. I like it! I'm all about just sharing images and seeing other people's work without having whether anyone else likes it causing a bias. I have a decent following for my film photography but was becoming disillusioned, this came at the right time for me.

You can still dive into who has liked your post if you choose but no one else sees them. As for other peoples post it says @____________ and others liked your post. So it could be 2 or 2000 it looks the same.

I think it will foster creativity instead of trying to make images that people will 'like' leaving everything bland. That being said there is a lot of great work out there if you seek it.

@Wallace RossxD Not too hard really. Just searched for "Wallace Ross Instagram". And you mentioned you had an account based on film photography. I read your description in the Wallace Ross Instagram and it mentioned film feed, so I knew it had to be you.

Anyhow, yes, I see the numbers of Likes and number of comments when I hover over the images to both accounts. When searching for "Wallace Ross Instagram", the search engine also returns "315 Followers, 351 Following, 1,949 Posts..." I wonder if that will still be the case if Instagram decides to not show those numbers. Or will the search engine still find it?

Edit: Also your profile on here lists another site, which both profiles on Instagram also lists that site. 100%. Final Answer (reference to Who Want to be a Millionaire TV show). xD

Instagram is not about photography for a long time. Most people sharing only to get likes and to count them. Due to the popularity of the platform many serious photographers and related to photography businesses opened Instagram accounts just because virtually everyone has it or at least had it in the past. That’s being said, many serious photographers and enthusiasts turned their backs at insta because of all the garbage that’s being posted there in zillions daily. Normal (what’s it ?) people these days prefer to have their own websites and use more photography oriented platforms but not Instagram.

I'm not against this, but it's not an entirely positive change. It works the other way too - you can’t see whose work is not getting exposure, and who is clearly gaming the system.

Instagram has always had an issue with over-promoting tacky crap from hub accounts, and ignoring genuine creative talent from artists. After all, they still need you addicted to build their audience for advertising, and they also want you to buy advertising, so there's two reasons you shouldn't expect a flood of activity with this change. "We want your followers to focus on what you share", I don't think that's necessarily 'you' they're talking to...

I usually don’t ‘like’ an image if it has over 1000 likes, as that ‘like’ won’t mean anything and will end up as a one way transaction, feeding someone else's fame, who will be unlikely to even acknowledge my existence. This would be problematic for people who are paying for these interactions, and this update would make that curation process more difficult.

I have to say this is a terrible idea and just another example of Instagram being run into the ground. Why is it a terrible idea? Because “likes” are a good way to know if a follower account is legit or if someone paid for their followers. If someone has 100,000 followers and are getting 100 likes per pic, they paid for that.

Really not sure why showing the number of Likes is such a problem. The Likes I give and receive are based on content and/or my relationship with the person posting. But in any event why not let the account holder decide? Make it a switch in the User settings.

If instagram want to fix this, they should promote accounts with less likes, not famous account every single time, like they do. If things were more even, people would pay less attention the the likes count.

If Instagram really wants the focus to be on content, they should eliminate likes AND followers. People do all kinds of tricks, gimmicks, automation, bots, and everything else just to have a good number.

I'd rather just look at others' good work and present my own for anyone interested.

I agree with you both, they should be hidden to only the account holder. Plus, this will help combat the selling/purchasing of fake accounts, and get rid of bots/automated accounts. I know someone who runs a company, all they do is purchase fake accounts, rename/rebrand them and re-sell them to their customers (legit businesses) as accounts with xxxK followers already. Then they use the IG API (they got in before it was canceled for new customers) to turn all their customers accounts into bots, auto liking/following and un-following/commenting, etc, just to get those numbers up, to which the businesses pay them tens of thousand's of $$ per month!

hmmm... since I no longer like this person, maybe I should report them to Instagram - would be doing everyone a favor... Anyone know an e-mail address at IG I can send this info too?

What Instagram should rather do is stop showing only the photos with many likes when you subscribe to hashtags (e.g. #blackandwhite)... Photos with many likes are not necessarily the best ones...Another possibility would have IA find out which photos you may like, instead of using the number of likes or number of followers...

It's funny that those people even engage in the "like a couple posts before following" routine so that they don't seem like those follow-for-follow accounts. But then you go to their profile and it's a 8:1 ratio of followers vs. follows. Pat yourself in the back, I guess.

I agree and I see the same thing but I think the reason they unlike is so they have less to scroll through in their feed. I have seen the same but less ofren on flickr. They likely only want to interact with and promote their circle of influencers. Instagram could easily write software to monitor this kind of abuse. Its completely event based and easy to track.

@MikeFairbanksI hate that practice, too. But I think it's extremely easy to spot. Still irks me, though, that people do that. It's so shallow. You can spot those generic compliments/comments from a mile away.

@chaos215bar2, yes, people have multiple accounts. Especially kids. They have one account that they will let their parents follow, and another account for just their friends where they share raunchier stuff and discuss vaping. :-(

The creation and adoption of a 'likes' system across the internet was no accident. Much research went into psychological techniques to maximize "user engagement", which is buzzword for keeping people on a platform as long as possible and as often as possible. In other words, keeping them addicted to the platform. Over the past year there's been several high-profile exposes on the matter. I recommend watching this 60 Minutes segment about it, called "Brain Hacking":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awAMTQZmvPE

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